1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a mobile battery cleaning system of the type that is carried on a truck to a work site, washes batteries on site, treats the waste water on site to form floc which is separated out, transported, stored and disposed of in a storage facility, with the treated water retained for reuse.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Industrial lead acid storage batteries such as those that are used in electric lift trucks, baggage handling trucks and other transporters are subjected to a variety of contaminating conditions that cause corrosion and other problems. The batteries are contaminated from battery charging and discharging as well as from pollutants in the environments where they are in operation. The batteries need to be frequently cleaned to reduce the incidence of corrosion, which causes shorts and grounds to the tray, which results in unsafe operation, expensive downtime and consequent lost production. The contaminants include oil, salts and heavy metals. Various systems have been proposed such as those illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,186,758 to Hartman and U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,630 to Hartman. None of the suggested approaches is satisfactory in that the systems do not always use clean water, and may violate governmental regulations which restrict the transport and disposal of hazardous wastes. In some instances the batteries may be taken out of service and returned to the manufacturer for cleaning, which is expensive and increases costs due to downtime.
The washing of batteries to clean them generates contaminants which are carried off in the washwater, such as oil residues, sulfates and heavy metals, which washwater may be dumped into sewage systems which are not equipped to handle the contaminants, or transported to a treatment plant which may or may not be capable of properly treating the materials. The Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) and Department of Transportation (D.O.T.) have very strict regulations for the transport and disposal of hazardous liquid waste, which regulations are difficult and expensive to comply with and are too often ignored.
The system of the invention completely cleans and neutralizes batteries on site with clean water, with the contaminated washwater treated on site by an oil separation/adsorption process in which a powder chemical is added to encapsulate, flocculate and separate out the contaminants. The washwater is filtered to gather the contaminants, and the clean water is returned to a holding tank to be reused to clean batteries at additional sites, with all contaminants removed from the sites, transported to and disposed of in a suitable facility.